The soundstages in Wilmington are dark as the Hollywood strike lingers. But big plans are in the works.
Kirk Englebright, founder and CEO of Dark Horse Studios in Wilmington, said a wave is coming, and his company, which is currently building the first new purpose-built film studio the state has seen in more than 40 years, is getting ready for the ride.
“Our new state-of-the-art stages will be coming online in 12 months,” he said about the $20 million project. “This strike, in the grand scheme of things … is making for a huge pent up demand for more content. More content means more productions, more feature films, more TV, more people working, more jobs created. We see it firsthand when these productions come in.”
Wilmington has long been known as “Hollywood East,” hosting productions such as “Dawson’s Creek” and “One Tree Hill.”
But for decades, EUE/Screen Gems has been the only major player.
Enter in Dark Horse Studios.
In an interview, Englebright talks about how he got here and what’s next for his corner of Hollywood East.
The beginning
Englebright is a serial investor – though it’s primarily in retail. For 17 years, he led Mattress Capital.
Flash forward to 2020, and Englebright and his business partner, Rodney Long (who happens to be his father-in-law), were looking for new opportunities in commercial real estate. They found a property – what used to be the Coastal Beverage Co. facility off Wilmington’s Market Street, purchasing it in 2019 for $4.8 million. And they quickly found a tenant, a “large employer in eastern North Carolina.”
But three months after the purchase came Covid-19. The deal fell through.
“So we were sitting on a healthy, 11,500-acre, 90,000-square-foot campus,” he said. “The phones were not ringing. We were not sure what we were going to do with it.”
And then a surprising tenant came calling – a Hallmark film production.
“We were thinking it was just a fluke, but that it was great we had a tenant,” he said – even a short-term tenant. Hallmark could “fill the void” for a few months. “And then we’ll figure out a long-term deal,” he thought at the time.
But before the project was over, another film project signed on as a tenant.
And then another. And another.
“That domino effect has been taking place for the last three years,” Englebright said. “We kind of caught on pretty quickly, realizing the opportunity right in front of us.”
The opportunity
North Carolina’s film incentive, coupled with a ready crew already based in Wilmington had film company after film company looking for stages – without Englebright spending a dime on advertising.
“Imagine if we put more energy toward it,” he remembers thinking.
So a year and a half in, the business partners got serious. Dark Horse was a real company. And it was going to expand.
A Jessica Chastain-led production, “George & Tammy,” sealed the deal.
And more stages could mean more opportunity. So the pair teamed up with an architect to plan purpose-built, concrete stages.
Englebright said it’s a learning process. Neither he nor Long have a background in film, but that hasn’t stopped them from answering the call.
“The process is to become a chameleon, adapt, listen,” Englebright said. “Every step along the way has been a learning lesson. … At the end of the day, as long as you have a good team behind you, it’s not rocket science.”
Dark Horse’s role is “fairly easy.” It’s responsible for providing a safe facility with infrastructure.
So Englebright toured other stages and spoke with production companies to come up with an infrastructure plan that could differentiate Dark Horse. He learned studios need a lot of office space and parking, as well as flex space for set decorate and costumes. But most importantly, they need a large open space for a stage with tall ceilings, as most film “is shot from up and then down.” Dark Horse is building tilt up concrete stages – a first for North Carolina, he said. The “smart stages” will be 20,000 square feet each, “with enough power to light up Wilmington.”
The goal? To secure more productions, and more jobs.
“It effects everyone,” he said of film projects. “These productions come in with these big budgets and they spend all their money right here. … My goal is to make North Carolina a premiere facility for soundstages, and it starts with capital investment.”
Dark Horse Studios broke ground on its expansion two weeks ago, but is having an official ceremony Thursday, to be attended by Gov. Roy Cooper. According to the company, the expansion doubles the size of Dark Horse Studios and enables it to accommodate twice as many productions a year.
By the numbers
According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, filmmakers spent more than $258 million on productions in North Carolina in 2022. The projects helped create 16,000 job opportunities, including 3,000 crew and talent positions for North Carolina’s own production workforce.
In 2022, 74 film, television and streaming projects conducted activities in the state, including films like “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can Eat” and shows such as “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”